Innocence of Muslims protests spread to Athens, Greece

Muslims living in Greece protest in front of the police cordon blocking their way to the US embassy in Athens during a demonstration against a US-made film mocking Islam on September 23, 2012. Police fired tear gas to disperse some 1,000 demonstrators in central Athens after some of them, largely immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, tried to break through a cordon to march toward the US embassy.

Protests against “Innocence of Muslims” spread to Greece and Turkey today as hundreds clashed with police in Athens over the low-budget YouTube video.

Marchers heading toward the US Embassy in the Greek capital shouted, “All we have is Mohammad” while carrying signs that said, “We demand an immediate punishment for those who tried to mock our Prophet Mohammad,” Reuters reported.

Innocence of Muslims is a low-budget film that paints the Prophet Mohammad as an abusive figure.

Many Muslims consider depicting or even drawing Mohammad, let along satirizing or denigrating the Prophet, blasphemous.

California filmmakers made the short movie, sparking deaths at the US Embassy in Libya, riots and protests across the globe.

Greece’s first demonstration against the film erupted into violence when protesters and police traded thrown bottles for teargas, Reuters said.